Pepperdine's standards for academic excellence are recognized internationally and
are met through graduate and undergraduate programs across five schools, cutting-edge
research, and exceptional faculty.

Boundless Horizons

Scaling the Heights

There are seven mountain peaks or
summits coveted by all who climb into
the clouds, who seek to do what few
have accomplished. Tenzing Norgay, a
storied mountain climber, wrote these
words at 27,000 feet:

"We look up. For weeks, for months,
that is all we have done. Look up.
And there it is—the top of Everest.
Only it is different now; so near, so
close, only a little more than a thousand
feet above us. It is no longer
just a dream, a high dream in the
sky, but a real and solid thing, a
thing made of rock and snow, that
men can climb. We make ready. We
will climb it. This time, with God’s
help, we will climb on to the end."

Norgay was joined by Sir Edmund
Hillary and they, together, stood on the
top of the world on May 28, 1953.

Our summits occur on commencement
days—mountaintops of a
different kind. Our heights are merely
way stations, as the opportunities in
higher education grow greater and greater
in height and expectation. Still, we
climb and sometimes even find paths of
our own choosing, separate from those
who climb alongside and with just as
much determination.

As a university we are tied together
through mission, through the commitments
we make to our colleagues, and,
especially, our students. We climb together.
We climb with and for each other
because we aspire to higher and better
things. We believe our horizons are
boundless.

This statement about the next few
years is meant to open the dialogue to
choosing challenging goals, to finding
the right paths, to making Pepperdine
better not just in 2020, but in 2050 and
beyond. Let the conversation begin, and
may it be attended by prayer and a confidence
worthy of our faith every step of
the way.